Hi friends,
I’ve had my Ekkie boy for over a month now. It’s going as well as one can expect. He’s done some great work with starting target training and about two weeks ago I started to convert his diet from Pretty Bird Eclectus Specific Diet to the Birdtricks Pellets (same as TOPS, gifted to us by my family). He doesn’t care for veggies so we’re working on that, and I’m offering fruit, but he’s still getting around those as well.
He’s a bit of an..aggressive preener kinda guy. Sometimes he even makes a huff/hissing sound when he goes to aggressively preen. But this past week, I noticed he’s been doing it a lot more.
He’s lost a couple body and one wing/tail feather on the last couple weeks, but last night I saw a lot of body and down feathers at the bottom of his sleep cage (see below). I’m just confused because none of the feathers look plucked but some do look overly cared for. On his body, I see both sides of his underwings have lost some feathers in same area, and he only looks like he’s thinning on his head/neck.
My hahn’s didn’t molt nearly as much as he did in one sitting that I saw so I’m trying to be proactive since Ekkie’s are prone to plucking. I did see some pin feather sheath dust but still worried he’s molting and plucking all the same. I also never had to deal with seasons so I’m not sure how they affect molting. Is it normal to molt in November?
Background: He gets to spend however much time he wants out of his cage. The door is always open unless I have to leave the room for more than 30 minutes. And even then, I’ll offer him a hand/shoulder to hang out with me if I leave the room before I go. Sometimes he’ll come for the ride, other times not. He has lots of toys in and out of his cage to play regardless and he has access to everything he needs.
He has a bunch of toys, lots of foraging toys since those seem to be his favorite (he’s a little chonk, I love it). He does play with them, but when he’s in the mood, otherwise, he’s chattering on his own, taking naps, or asking to hang out with me.
He’s had somewhat less of an appetite lately. He’ll eat his breakfast a little later, and usually he snacks at the remaining pellets but he has been doing so not as often unless it’s the foraging treats he finally frees. He will tries to fly to his night cage to sleep when he’s ready around 5p or 6p (the sunsets around this time and is dark for us). I try to take him out in 12 hours, but sometimes he does warning bites as if to say let me sleep in, so I try again in intervals until he’s ready to step up. He’s still new to me, so I’m trying to respect his boundaries as much as possible, and won’t move him unless it’s an area I don’t want him to have access to. He’ll eat breakfast, forage with his toys, and then squawk until nap time. And then I give dinner. He hangs out until I see him start to get comfy to sleep. I’d keep him in his regular cage, but that is in the living room where I sleep and I have sleep apnea so I don’t want to startle him and set him up in my nieces room where he can get some quiet.
I don’t stroke his body, but I did try to check his feathers and body for places if he was plucking. He doesn’t like touch but will let me manipulate him some. He also offer me kisses when we’re hanging out. He just puts his beak next to my face and does it himself. I do talk softly to calm him down at times, and I’ll hum or sing a little lullaby before we put him in for bed time. Otherwise, I am working on him allowing touch.
Before I forget, we also went to the vet a month ago and had blood and fecal and microchipping. All tests were passed per avian certified vet. They also said that his Pretty Bird diet was fine, but I am trying to convert to unfortified ones.
Happy to answer any questions!
Here are some pictures for reference.
I’ve had my Ekkie boy for over a month now. It’s going as well as one can expect. He’s done some great work with starting target training and about two weeks ago I started to convert his diet from Pretty Bird Eclectus Specific Diet to the Birdtricks Pellets (same as TOPS, gifted to us by my family). He doesn’t care for veggies so we’re working on that, and I’m offering fruit, but he’s still getting around those as well.
He’s a bit of an..aggressive preener kinda guy. Sometimes he even makes a huff/hissing sound when he goes to aggressively preen. But this past week, I noticed he’s been doing it a lot more.
He’s lost a couple body and one wing/tail feather on the last couple weeks, but last night I saw a lot of body and down feathers at the bottom of his sleep cage (see below). I’m just confused because none of the feathers look plucked but some do look overly cared for. On his body, I see both sides of his underwings have lost some feathers in same area, and he only looks like he’s thinning on his head/neck.
My hahn’s didn’t molt nearly as much as he did in one sitting that I saw so I’m trying to be proactive since Ekkie’s are prone to plucking. I did see some pin feather sheath dust but still worried he’s molting and plucking all the same. I also never had to deal with seasons so I’m not sure how they affect molting. Is it normal to molt in November?
Background: He gets to spend however much time he wants out of his cage. The door is always open unless I have to leave the room for more than 30 minutes. And even then, I’ll offer him a hand/shoulder to hang out with me if I leave the room before I go. Sometimes he’ll come for the ride, other times not. He has lots of toys in and out of his cage to play regardless and he has access to everything he needs.
He has a bunch of toys, lots of foraging toys since those seem to be his favorite (he’s a little chonk, I love it). He does play with them, but when he’s in the mood, otherwise, he’s chattering on his own, taking naps, or asking to hang out with me.
He’s had somewhat less of an appetite lately. He’ll eat his breakfast a little later, and usually he snacks at the remaining pellets but he has been doing so not as often unless it’s the foraging treats he finally frees. He will tries to fly to his night cage to sleep when he’s ready around 5p or 6p (the sunsets around this time and is dark for us). I try to take him out in 12 hours, but sometimes he does warning bites as if to say let me sleep in, so I try again in intervals until he’s ready to step up. He’s still new to me, so I’m trying to respect his boundaries as much as possible, and won’t move him unless it’s an area I don’t want him to have access to. He’ll eat breakfast, forage with his toys, and then squawk until nap time. And then I give dinner. He hangs out until I see him start to get comfy to sleep. I’d keep him in his regular cage, but that is in the living room where I sleep and I have sleep apnea so I don’t want to startle him and set him up in my nieces room where he can get some quiet.
I don’t stroke his body, but I did try to check his feathers and body for places if he was plucking. He doesn’t like touch but will let me manipulate him some. He also offer me kisses when we’re hanging out. He just puts his beak next to my face and does it himself. I do talk softly to calm him down at times, and I’ll hum or sing a little lullaby before we put him in for bed time. Otherwise, I am working on him allowing touch.
Before I forget, we also went to the vet a month ago and had blood and fecal and microchipping. All tests were passed per avian certified vet. They also said that his Pretty Bird diet was fine, but I am trying to convert to unfortified ones.
Happy to answer any questions!
Here are some pictures for reference.
